Ben Jordan Case 5

[Fisher]

Great job, Grundislav! I've played ALL of the Ben Jordan games and I must say that they rank right up there as some of my favorites!

Thank you for this one and I HOPE to see more.

Very much appreciate your hard work!

[InCreator]

Hm. Finished and liked. Quite.

It's definetly one with highest quality in BJ series, but also quite easy one - I never needed any hints and there was only 3-4 hard points in game.

Two things bothered me quite hard:

The overall mega-depressive mood in the game ruined it... I can't understand was it your own depression, Grundislav, or intended one.

The puzzles, scenes, and other doings feel way TOO much like original Gabriel Knight game (newspaper reading, police officer, nightmares, costume puzzle, map...)

Otherwise, a nice solid game, and like others, one of higher-quality games among AGS games.

I could repeat the same suggestion list you've already heard, like "Visit CL once in a while", "add pointer pixel to inventory items", "use less blur", etc, but you ignored this when I said so after previous games, so what's the point... Anyway, Alice looked quite awful (fat and well, extremely unsexy), and BJ's new outfit (pointless pants) sucked too... but other characters were quite fine, and closeups & animations are better than before.

The music was very good, but a bit too depressive aswell. The type of music in sushi restaurant was something that I'd use in many other places too, where theme wasn't too serious for this. I found myself wandering in restaurant just to hear music and pump up the mood...

What can I say? More! But take a break first.

[Rosie]

I found a bug in the game.  I was stuck and couldnt go any further in the game because I couldnt get into the inspectors room......Here's what I unknowingly did:

Went into Shinoli's room and got a fingerprint from the sword in his back......took it to the lab..... He told me I should try to get another fingerprint to match it to.   I went back to Shinoli's office and took another fingerprint from the same sword and then took it to lab again.  The lab man said it was a match and gave me the letter to confirm it. (I replayed the game because I was stuck and found that I had to get the fingerprint from the sword in the asuka house.  But great game.........Thank you

[MillsJROSS]

Well, I'm finished now.

It wasn't really up to my expectations. I was annoyed by a few pixelish hunting things.

Spoiler

Like the fish on top of the trash. It took me forever to find it, figuring that trash can implied everything within the can. And I couldn't understand why one door was locked, and the door opener couldn't open it, but it could cover the huge vent. The police completely allowing you the ability to come in and out as you pleased seemed inplausable, even in the context of a BJ game. There were many times where I was left wandering the game with no idea what to do, even thought the notebook gives you some idea of what to look for.

I found other people refering to the women as Ben's girlfriend to be annoying (other than Ben's friend), and his denial annoying as well. There were many characters that you used that were never touched again, and Ben still would come up to them and do the hello, may I talk to you, Goodbye, bit. I was also angered by the fact that you could go to the dead guys building but couldn't do anything, so it was just a waste of time. But I still had to keep checking because I never knew if you were going to do something over there.

You're friends ability to hack into things with ease annoyed me, not that he could do it, but it took five seconds. When an easy "moments later" screen or something would have worked better, for me. The exits on all screens were difficult to detect. There was one place in the village, with the bushes, where there looked like a trail heading east, but Ben couldn't go that way. And even when they were detected, it was difficult manuevering Ben over there sometimes. There was a collection of odd dialog. For some reason once you talk to the women who's grieving her husbands death, you're able to talk to her about serious issues without even explaining who you are.

[close]

I like the graphics, they work well with each other and nothing sticks out. The music is always top notch. The story was a little on the weak side, but interesting enough to keep me going. But I just didn't enjoy the game that much. Which is a shame, becuase I've enjoyed the other four.

-MillsJROSS

[duu]

Finished it. Now some bugs & comments:

Spoiler

- I seemed to have an uncommon problem: I played the game through but never visited the sushi bar. Is this intentionaly?

- It would be great if you could change the speed of speech & walk.

- Had the same problem than inCreator. After shinobi was dead I taked the fingerprint, used it in lab, taked another one from the same sword and they matched. When I told about Inspector from this, BJ sit in an invisible chair!

- You had to combine the basket and robe before you could wear it. Huh?

- Some exits where hard to find or even realise that they existed.

- In the end had to look in computer before could take the loose wire. Didn't realise wire because of that.

[close]

Otherwise, great game and I'm looking for more!

[Afflict]

I just got annoyed with the

[/spoiler]

puzzle where i couldnt take the fingerprints off the victims body. and had to go back to take it of his sword. It also didnt make sense to visit the lady again IMO as what business did the priest have there? Further along on this same puzzle what could of happened if the real priest was there in the mean time?

Spoiler

[close]

[magintz]

One of my biggest dissapointments was that BJ went to Japan and there were no ninjas!

I do agree with inCreator on mos the points that he made and hope the next game has some improvements as I feel that it was more of a story than an adventure game (just reading through dialog).

Also the gameshow was quite funny, google was my 'phone a friend'.

Lastly I have to say I was stuck on the same part as Afflict.

Spoiler

Why would the priest need to return

[close]

[CosmoQueen]

Great job Grundislav!!! *applauds* I finished the game and it was awesome!!!

I can't wait for the next one!

[SSH]

I always play AGS games windowed and its a real pain trying to click right on the left or right-most pixel just to get Ben to change rooms sometimes... and these things are easy to fix!

[Grundislav]

I have uploaded another fixed version which has eliminated the bug where you can get the print off the sword in Shinobi's office more than once.Ã,  That seemed to be causing a lot of other weird things to happen.

Thank you for the comments and criticisms.

InCreator: I know what you mean about the "visit the CL."Ã,  In this game I experimented with tracing over photographs for the backgrounds, and I admit the results are not very good.Ã,  However I can assure you that I've dumped this method, so hopefully the next game will be more consistent visually.

I'm still working on getting the right balance between puzzles and story.Ã,  It seems every BJ game I release will always have either the inevitable "I finished it, it was so easy!" or "cardboard windows!? what were you thinking?!" Or both!

Also, one comment that confuses me a little is

Spoiler

the one about being frustrated by having to look at the monitor to find the wire.Ã,  Aren't adventure games about exploration?Ã,  I thought that having the hotspot names would make it obvious as to what was important in each screen.Ã,  If you look at either of the monitors it tells you that there's a loose wire.

[close]

[Hammerite]

what does "visit the CL" mean?

also:

Spoiler

1.) why does mary tell ben to consider his career path in the dreams?
2.) where the hell was percival for this game??
3.) what was his card for?
4.) will them weird witchy people be returning?

[close]

[Nikolas]

I'm still working on getting the right balance between puzzles and story.Ã,  It seems every BJ game I release will always have either the inevitable "I finished it, it was so easy!" or "cardboard windows!? what were you thinking?!" Or both!

I think that simply every game that comes out of your hands is so great that Case 5 was bound to be compared. Sometimes it is difficult to beat your own self

But for me, which BJ5 is the first game I play from the series, I find it superb! The music is lovely, the animation and characters also.

The story is fine as it is, and I've not finished it yet!

Now, I've got to go... Got to go play a little 

[Snarky]

Congrats on finishing BJ5, Grundislav! I always enjoy playing the Ben Jordan games.

I was having suspension-of-disbelief problems with the setting (and quite a lot of the plot) in this one, though. None of the other games were exactly realistic, either, but since this game seemed to have a more serious tone it was a lot more difficult to overlook.

I didn't really believe the depiction of Japan; I got the feeling it was all based on well-known stereotypes and watching Lost in Translation. (And aren't Japanese toilets known for being absurdly high-tech, rather than the hole in the floor you showed? Though I'm sure that varies...) The Chinese-style temple certainly didn't help, even with the in-game excuse.

You avoided the danger of ethnic stereotyping (always a danger when representing foreign cultures), but you ended up going too far the other way, so that many of the characters actually looked more caucasian than Japanese, and spoke perfect (or at least very good) English. OK, I can buy that some of the business men speak English in their line of work. Maybe even a police detective. But every person in the police station? A sushi chef? Most Japanese people I have met struggle with the English language, and they're people who studied in the US or UK. It actually occured to me that maybe you only decided to set the game in Japan when you were halfway through, and left the characters and backgrounds you had already created as they were.

Spoiler

Similarly, I had a hard time believing in the degree of cooperation you got from the police, what with access to the (somewhat spartanly equipped) crime lab and everything. I didn't understand why the police kept the names of the first four victims secret (or how, if they were really the heads of some of the biggest corporations in the city) but allowed the paper to print a picture of the fifth victim. I couldn't believe that the widow would be fooled by a red-haired Zen priest with a flower basket for his hat. It strained belief that several people could die mysteriously in a village accessible from Osaka but no investigation, autopsy, or even examination by a "trained physician" performed. (What's an "untrained physician", by the way? Some guy who just calls himself Doctor?) It seemed really strange that the lab technician would need a sample of puffer fish detrodotoxin (surely a well-known poison) to be able to identify what was in the dead man's blood.

[close]

As long as Ben Jordan lives in a kind of Scooby Doo world where ghosts and skunk apes are a matter of course, these things don't really matter. However, in the later games in the series it seems like you're being more ambitious than that, Grundislav. Even the resolution of Case 5 indicates a new level of seriousness. But in order to pull it off you need to pay more attention to details like the ones listed above. Good luck with your future games!

[lspace]

Just finished the game and enjoyed it immensely.Ã,  Well done.Ã,  And thank you for making it.Ã,  I do have question.Ã,  Will this game have a name other than Case 5?Ã,  All the previous games had an additional title.

[GarageGothic]

Just finished the game and enjoyed it immensely.  Well done.  And thank you for making it.  I do have question.  Will this game have a name other than Case 5?  All the previous games had an additional title.

It already does, on the title screen it says "Land of the Rising Dead".

[Grundislav]

Believe it or not, I have an excuse as to why the police allowed Ben to be so "hands-on" and also why the widow didn't really question his ethnicity.Ã,  Some might view it as a convenient cop-out, but I can assure you I had it in mind from before.Ã,  It will be explained later in the series. (Like so many other things, including the one question I'm still surprised nobody has asked).

[CosmoQueen]

It was the right balence to me. Not too hard and not too easy.

I have uploaded another fixed version which has eliminated the bug where you can get the print off the sword in Shinobi's office more than once.  That seemed to be causing a lot of other weird things to happen.

Thank you for the comments and criticisms.

InCreator: I know what you mean about the "visit the CL."  In this game I experimented with tracing over photographs for the backgrounds, and I admit the results are not very good.  However I can assure you that I've dumped this method, so hopefully the next game will be more consistent visually.

I'm still working on getting the right balance between puzzles and story.  It seems every BJ game I release will always have either the inevitable "I finished it, it was so easy!" or "cardboard windows!? what were you thinking?!" Or both!

Also, one comment that confuses me a little is

Spoiler

the one about being frustrated by having to look at the monitor to find the wire.  Aren't adventure games about exploration?  I thought that having the hotspot names would make it obvious as to what was important in each screen.  If you look at either of the monitors it tells you that there's a loose wire.

[close]

[CosmoQueen]

LOL Wow I never even thought of that!! I was just having too much fun playing the game!

Believe it or not, I have an excuse as to why the police allowed Ben to be so "hands-on" and also why the widow didn't really question his ethnicity.  Some might view it as a convenient cop-out, but I can assure you I had it in mind from before.  It will be explained later in the series. (Like so many other things, including the one question I'm still surprised nobody has asked).

[Petra]

First of all, thanks for the BJ5

I enjoyed playing it.

However, the pixel hunts when trying to change the rooms were a bit annoying.

And in accoradance with all the others here..
The reason to visit the widow a second time was not obvious...

And the puzzles were a bit too easy in my opinion, even me didn't need any help from the hints forum...


But overall, another nice game in my collection...

[GarageGothic]

Believe it or not, I have an excuse as to why the police allowed Ben to be so "hands-on" and also why the widow didn't really question his ethnicity.  Some might view it as a convenient cop-out, but I can assure you I had it in mind from before.  It will be explained later in the series. (Like so many other things, including the one question I'm still surprised nobody has asked).

Does this mean a Monkey Island 2 ending?